Analyzing Character eBook

what we wish to know further is what are the most
powerful desires in the particular human mind with
which we are dealing. Obviously, the automobile
salesman who vividly pictures to the timid person
the thrills of speeding around curves would be as far
wrong as if he were picturing the sedate, quiet luxury
of his car to a speed maniac. What he wants to
know and what we all want to know in substance is
how to tell, at a glance, which is the timid, sedate
person and which the speed maniac.

DECISION AND ACTION

Perhaps the most delicate and most difficult process
among all the four steps of persuasion is inducing
decision and action. When one reflects upon the
multitudinous important decisions made and actions
taken every hour, it hardly seems possible that it
can be so difficult to induce our fellow-men to make
the short step from hesitant desire to definite decision.
The truth is, of course, that in the making of almost
any important decision there is a stern conflict between
conflicting desires. Take, for example, a man
buying an automobile. Under the skilful persuasive
power of the salesman, he has vividly pictured to himself
enjoying possession. But this is not his only
mental picture. Perhaps he has a picture of his
old age, in which he might enjoy the income from the
money which would go into an automobile. There
are also in his mind mental pictures of half a dozen
to a dozen or more other makes of automobiles.
In addition to these, there may be a mental picture
of a motor boat, a little cottage by the sea, a new
set of furniture for his house, new fittings for his
store, an increased advertising appropriation, a new
insurance policy, a trip to California and return,
and goodness only knows how many other objects of
desire. It is no wonder he hesitates and that
he must be very skilfully and deftly brought to the
point of decision.

WAYS OF INDUCING DECISION AND ACTION

For this reason, experience has shown that many people,
perhaps the majority of people, can be induced to
decide whether they will have red rubber or gray rubber
tires on an automobile they contemplate purchasing
far more easily than they can be induced to decide
definitely that they will purchase the car. Having
decided upon the tires, however, they can be asked
to decide upon other minor points, including the terms
upon which they intend to pay for the car, and thus
eventually go through the entire process of purchasing
the car without ever giving their delicate mental
mechanism the severe shock and strain of deciding to
purchase it at all. As a general rule, such people
are surprised and delighted to find that they have
made the decision so easily and with so little pain
and distress.

But this method will not work with all people.
There are some natures so positive, so aggressive,
so fond of taking the initiative, so determined to
make their own decisions without interference that
the wise salesman or persuader apparently permits
them to have their own way, at the same time skilfully
guiding them in the way he wishes them to go by means
of indirect suggestion.